The guys over at LoftsVancouver.com created a video a few weeks ago that depicts who they are and what they do very well. A great addition to that video is the out takes that they have compiled into another video. It gives you a great sense of these guys and shows you a little bit of the behind the scenes footage that did not make the cut.
Out Takes:
Original Video:
Here is a quick list of 8 things I would not suggest having on your Realtor website:
1. Flash Splash Page
2. Canned Content (ie. content that you can find on other sites)
3. Image based content
4. Pop up windows (ie. mortgage calculators that pop open a new window when clicked, etc)
5. Testimonials without a full name attached to them
6. Banner Advertising
7. Less than 8 photos for each of your listings
8. Music (especially music with no off switch)
Related Article - 40 ways to make a great real estate agent website
Interested in a new Realtor Website?
Shortly, Ubertor realtor websites will have the ability to edit the favicon. What is the favicon you ask?
Its the little icon within the browser address (logo on the left) here are a few examples of custom favicons:
This feature will be available shortly, and announced here. Watch for more details.
Real Estate Technology Meetup - Shane Gibson co-author of Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals will share with us how to integrate time tested and proven sales strategies with technology to create and secure high return on investment business relationships in our communities.
Shane Gibson, President (North America)
Knowledge Brokers International Systems Ltd.
Have you RSVP’d for the next Meetup? Details Here want to see some photos from past meetups?
Many clients have requested some additional badges for their listings photos and with yesterdays rollout we answered those requests. Now within your control panel you will see the following choices:
Ed Gramauskas and Reid Dewson were our first real estate clients!
They were a help in getting the original version of the Ubertor website engine off the ground, actually, the suggested the idea of creating it in the first place. The thing I have noticed about Reid and Ed is that they are always ahead of the curve within real estate.
- They had a niche website when real estate agents were just getting online
- They sought out a better solution for their old website (enter Ubertor)
- They autofill listings automatically from all loft buildings within Greater Vancouver making their site the one stop shop for lofts in Vancouver
- Now, they have embraced video, YouTube and Google Video to showcase who they are and what they are about
Check out their video below… you might even seen me for a couple seconds near the end. 
2007 Online Real Estate:
- Do you have a website?
- Are you blogging?
- Do you have a niche website?
- Did you create a video about you and your business?
Feel like you are falling behind the quick moving online real estate business?
- If you need a website - Ubertor can help!
- If your interested in who made the LoftsVancouver.com video? - chat with these guys
- Want to learn more about blogging? - chat with our client service team!
Wordtracker launched a free keyword suggestion tool to help you find quality keywords. I have written a few posts about keywords with high KEI using a few tools like this. If your interested in playing with it you can find it here.
Want to learn more about this “keyword suggestion tool”? Check out the Wordtracker blog for more details.
I have done a few blog interviews in the past few weeks with some real estate figureheads… here are the ones so far, plus I have a few more coming. In case your missed them here they are:
Blog Interview: Colin Bosa, President of Bosa Properties Ltd.
Blog Interview: John Scott, Chief Executive Officer of the Scott Construction Group
Blog Interview: Chris Tsakumis, Vice President and Director of EPTA Properties
I did one the other day with the RealEstateChannel:
Video Interview: Stephen Jagger, co-founder of Ubertor
Think about who you could interview and add them to your site… makes for some great content.
40 ways to make a great real estate agent website
1. add a blog: write about you, your business, your expertise, your area, etc
2. write a good biography that talks about you, your education, past employment, places you’ve lived…
3. include home page content that contains your full name, company name, neighbourhoods you work, phone number, etc
4. add video about yourself
5. get testimonials from clients, be sure to include their full names as it adds more credibility to the testimonial
6. get rid of all canned content and take the time to write your own text in its place
7. add Meebo to your site so that you can chat with your visitors
8. use Google Analytics to track your traffic
9. add a feature listing to your home page, be sure to change it every few weeks
10. make your cell phone and email address known, have them on every page
11. subscribe your blog’s rss feed to feedburner.com
12. use Google Maps to promote your listing
13. subscribe your website to Google Sitemaps to ensure that Google is up to speed on your website’s activity
14. update your title tags to be descriptive for each page of your website
15. add a page to your website for each neighbourhood that you specialize in
16. add links to products and services that you recommend
17. people love stats, keep your visitors up to date with market stats and conditions
18. add your website URL to your email signature
19. ensure that your full contact info are on your contact page (name, mailing address, phone, company name, fax, etc)
20. add your sold listings to your site
21. add property searches
22. send out a press release announcing your new website
23. add some photos of you and your clients, family, city…
24. register a easy to remember domain name and point it to your website
25. pay attention your listing description (for example: adding “Good-value” sells for 5% less than average)
26. don’t add banner or link advertising
27. add the feedburner email newsletter option that will email your subscribes your blog posts - for free
28. get some blog interviews from interesting personalities (makes for good reading and adds more “stickiness” to your website
29. add neighbourhood videos that depict areas you work in
30. discuss groups, boards, volunteer activity, meetups, classes that you participate in
31. add your listings to craigslist.org and be sure add a link to your website
32. no listings? add your services to the “real estate services” section of craigslist.org (be sure to hyperlink to your site)
33. add a rentals section to your website and let your clients know you will help them rent their place
34. add a privacy policy
35. add as many photos to your listings as you can
36. add a unique domain to promote your listings (its a great way to make the owner feel special - plus you could give the domain to whoever buys the home as a unique gift
37. write quality content on your buyers and sellers pages to entice your website visitors to give you their contact information
38. add your blog articles to realestatevoices.com
39. answer common questions that you are asked right in your blog
40. make sure your companies website, your mls and any other site you have a profile on is linking to your website
Looking for a new website? Check out our current promotions at www.ubertor.com
Questions - chat with our client service team for more information!
Interesting video interview between Robert Scoble and Glenn Kelman of Redfin.com
From Scoble’s site:
“I sit down with Glenn Kelman, CEO, and Michael Young, CTO of RedFin, as we talk about this real estate industry disruptor. RedFin lets people buy and sell real estate online without paying real estate agent commission fees (or, at minimum, greatly reduced fees). But that’s not the only way that they are shaking up real estate markets. They are trying to change how the industry is compensated, which will, Kelman says, increase customer satisfaction with the process.”
